Alaska 2021: Pribilofs. St. Paul Island I

May 19 - 25, 2021

Tour Length:
7 days Est. Spaces Left:
Available

Birding the “Galapagos of the North” with huge colonies of Horned & Tufted Puffins, Least, Crested & Parakeet Auklets, Red-faced Cormorants and the rare Red-legged Kittiwake as well as opportunities for Asian vagrants migrating along the “Siberian Express”

The Pribilof Islands lie in the middle of the Bering Sea about 600 miles from landfall. St. Paul Island, where we stay, hosts many of the largest colonies of alcids (auklets & other seabirds) in the world as well as the largest Northern Fur Seal colony in the world. St. Paul is an isolated and charming island with a small Aleut population. Asian vagrants regularly visit St. Paul in late May, and we expect to see a number of them along with the resident species. We spend the first night in Anchorage.

The Pribilofs record many Asiatic vagrants and accidentals every year during late May including regular occurrences of Bean Goose, Smew, Tufted Duck, Common Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, Great Knot, Black-tailed Godwit, Siberian Rubythroat, Eye-browed Thrush, and Brambling. Other rarities, e.g., Chinese Pond-Heron, Little Stint, Far Eastern Curlew, Brown Shrike, McKay’s Bunting, Dusky Thrush, Olive-backed Pipit, Hawfinch and many others are recorded less frequently. We will also see large colonies of seabirds, such as the Parakeet, Least and Crested Auklets; Horned and Tufted Puffins; Common and Thick-billed Murres; Red-legged and Black-legged Kittiwakes; Northern Fulmar and many others.

During your free time in Anchorage, don’t miss going to Wave Bookstores on Northern Lights or downtown on 5th Avenue. They have a great selection of Alaska fiction and non-fiction! In addition, there are some excellent restaurants downtown, including Orso, Glacier Brew House, Simon & Seafort’s, and Marx Brothers.